PARALYMPICS:

Woolstencroft golden, Wisniewska wins bronze in slalom

March 15, 2010 — SRC Staff Report

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WHISTLER, B.C. — Skier Lauren Woolstencroft won Canada's second gold medal of the Paralympic Games on Monday.

The North Vancouver, B.C., native won the women's standing slalom in a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 51.97 seconds.

Teammate Karolina Wisniewska of Vancouver was third in 1:58.84 and Germany's Andrea Rothfuss took the silver in 1:58.35.

It was the fourth Paralympic gold medal of Woolstencroft's career. In her two previous Paralympics, she won three golds, a silver and bronze.

Woolstencroft, 28, was born without legs below the knee and no left arm below the elbow. She started skiing at the age of four and racing at 14.

Canada's para-alpine ski team now has four of the host nation's six Paralympic medals so far at the 2010 Games.

Woolstencroft won in the standing category, crossing the finish line with a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 51.97 seconds, while teammate Karolina Wisniewska placed third.

"Slalom definitely hasn't been my best event this year at all and having Karolina on the podium with me today makes this win even more special. I just want to ski my best and I think I did that today so I'm really happy. I also think that skiing my best can put me on the podium so I hope I can keep this going," said Woolstencroft, who began the 2010 Paralympics with five career medals, including three gold.

Woolstencroft said having the crowd behind her and her teammates definitely helped her to achieve today's sixth career medal.

"During my first run I didn't hear anything. I was super-focused and I don't think it was as loud. But for the second run, when I got to the six last gates, it was getting pretty loud. All I could think of was to get through it. I was really happy to (win) in front of my family and friends," she Woolstencroft.

Wisniewska, who was born with cerebral palsy, has now won seven medals at three Paralympics.

Wisniewska, a winner of four medals at her last Paralympics in 2002 in Salt Lake City, finished third just .49 from the silver medal won by Germany's Andrea Rothfuss.

"I didn't think I was going to podium today. My focus since my comeback was to become a better skier and focusing on the process. I have always said that if I can ski like I know how and be able to lay down some good runs, I am sure the results will come and it happened today so I'm really happy," said Wisniewska, who retired after the Paralympic Games in 2002 only to make a comeback beginning in 2007. The comeback was focused on her dream of winning a medal in 2010.

"I knew my first run was really good but when I came down from my second run I wasn't quite sure. I though it was good but I didn't know if it was good enough. Apparently it was," added the three-time Paralympian.

"Slalom is my favorite event and I had a really fun day. I felt that if I can focus on having fun, it should be OK. It sounds silly but it obviously worked," she said.

Also in the standing category, Melanie Schwartz finished 13th and Andrea Dziewior finished in 15th place.

In the men's standing category New Zealand's Adam Hall was the fastest in the slalom with a time of 1:45.40. The top Canadian was 16-year-old Kirk Schornstein in 25th place. Matt Hallat finished in 31st place.

"I'm pretty disappointed, I didn't ski very well. I think jitters in general were to blame and the fact that we had to wait all those days before we could actually have a race in. I have to take a look at it later today and watch some video and see what went wrong," said Hallat.

The men and women’s visually impaired and sitting category will race giant slalom Tuesday.  SRC

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report